Join me on my delicious journey revisiting American home cooking in the era before convenience foods became popular (1919 to 1955), as I bake and cook from old cookbooks and recipe cards of home cooks purchased at estate sales in Akron, Ohio, and other exotic locations.

Top 100 Cake Blog

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Park Slope Honey Cookies

I love when worlds collide, like last week when I made Honey Delight Cookies from a c. 1915 recipe and used honey harvested from my neighbor's c. 2010 beehive.

Today's constant buzz to eat locally grown and produced foods was not a movement, but a way of life, for many of the women whose recipes I use. Back then, most food they consumed was local and naturally the exotic, imports like dates and bananas, held high appeal.

These honey cookies are indeed delightful, as their name suggests. They are simple to make (though they call for the separation of eggs and the beating of the whites -- typical in a cake but unusual in a cookie).

There's no mistaking these cookies for store-bought with their rustic appearance. And for such small and easy cookies, they pack a lot of flavor; both the honey and the lemon are quite pronounced, which is a good thing.

The honey I used could have been even more local -- from my own garden. Two summers ago, I considered hosting a beehive (after being contacted by a couple of beekeepers), but DH would have no part of it. (See his blog post here.) I also discovered that beehives do not make good neighbors after Vicki, who lives next door, told me she was allergic to bee stings. So for the moment, I must rely on the generosity of my neighbors Robert and Marcy to keep me supplied with "down the block" honey. Which is absolutely delicious, by the way.

Follow by Email

Followers

Search This Blog

About Me

I love to bake, especially from the treasured recipes of home cooks, the kind of recipes typed or hand-written on index cards, or carefully pasted in scrapbooks. I have a large collection of these, gathered over the years from flea markets, stoop sales and estate sales. These "lost" recipes, with their stains and annotations like "good, from mother's book," provide a window into the past, and one that I'm trying to pry open, one stick of butter at a time!
I'm also investigating Mrs. Grace Osborn of Bay City, Michigan, who published (or probably self-published) a cake book in 1919, instructing women on her (wacky) cake baking methods and encouraging them to bake for recognition and profit, that being one of the few acceptable ways for women to earn money back then. More on her in upcoming posts!